Fortune Favors The Bold

CHAPTER SEVEN: FORTUNE VS PETROV

No! No! No! That damned woman. With traumatized horror, Adonis watched the horrified expression of the detective as she stared at the lovestruck expression that his mother was bestowing on his uncle. That sneaky woman had taken a wild guess and inadvertently come up with the truth.

It was going to be a huge problem for him. Wordlessly, he watched her make her quick escape, and he cringed in embarrassment before excusing himself. That was a shame he’d lived with for most of his life.

“Detective!” he cried after Alaya as he sped down the corridor to catch up with her. He knew that she must have read the tension between his mother and his uncle, that was why he’d been alarmed when Elijah Fortune had arrived unannounced in the mansion. “Detective, wait up!”

He watched as she stopped in her tracks with her back still towards him, and Adonis jogged to where she stood on the stoned alley right in front of the porch. It was too public a place for them to discuss so he just pulled her unceremoniously towards the garden.

“What are you doing?” she asked in an outraged tone, wrenching her arms free from his hold. Her body was exquisitely toned, with hard muscles defined everywhere, and she was surprisingly strong considering her small size.

“We need to talk,” he rasped harsher than he’d intended because he was pissed with the carnal direction of his thoughts.

She squinted her eyes warily. “About what exactly?” she asked with a skeptical frown and he sighed belligerently.

“Will you cut the crap?” he hissed impatiently. “Whatever you’ve seen inside has nothing to do with the murder case.”

Crossing her arms defiantly, Adonis could only focus on how the action put forward the two soft mounds thrust upwards in a tantalizing way. “How can you be so sure? And what do you think I have seen inside?”

“Don’t test my patience, Detective. Do you want me to spell it out for you?” he whispered angrily, knowing only too well that probing ears were not lacking in the estate. “We both know you read my mother’s feelings for my Uncle Elijah. She is in love with him,” he said in a rush, the words tasting like cotton in his mouth.

There it was! Was that so bad? It was the first time he’s uttered them loud, the first time he’d publicly acknowledged the scandalous affair. Why did his chest still feel heavy though? It was supposed to be a weight lifted off from his shoulders, but instead lead settled inside as unwanted memories haunted him.

He’d been six years old when he’d caught them together in bed. As an innocent child, he’d not completely understood the meaning of their affair, but his mother had quickly asked him to cover up for them. Which he’d done.

It had turned into a nightmare. Inadvertently, he’d found himself an accomplice in their guilty pleasure, serving as an excuse for the lovers whenever they wanted to meet secretly. At first, it had been easy – he hadn’t enough maturity to judge the consequences and the two adults had profited greatly from his innocence.

But later when he’d been old enough to understand the repercussions of what he was doing, it had disgusted him. The fact that they would use them to cover their illicit love affair. Or the fact that he believed that his father deserved to be cheated on because the latter was an even greater philanderer.

As a teenager, those murky relationships had greatly confused him, He was unable to understand why his father and mother remained married under the circumstances. Later, as an adult, he’d understood that money had been the reason behind the treacheries. No Fortune was allowed to divorce, or all their shares would be passed on to the other siblings of the same generation.

“Since when?” the woman in front of him queried boldly, and he blinked away the past as easily as he would have done with something tangible. Hiding his feelings was his forte – nobody would ever guess what he was thinking under that impassible veneer he wore. If only one could cut open his chest and remove that load that easily.

“Since I can remember. So, if they wanted to kill him, it would have been a long time ago,” he said lamely, because he wanted to exonerate his mother and favorite uncle.

“Is this what you’ve been telling yourself?” she asked lightly, but there was nothing casual about the way her brown eyes perused him. They seemed to be reading his very soul and it made him uncomfortable. “That they are too innocent to commit a crime? You know I’ve seen enough in my career to understand that there is no reasoning in murder. It can happen anytime for the silliest reason.”

Her chest heaved as she took in another deep breath. “There was one time a mother killed her own child because she had to go clubbing. I also had that case where a son strangled his mother because the latter wouldn’t give him money. So, please don’t you dare tell me that you believe in their innocence!”

She seemed extremely perturbed, and Adonis lifted his palm in a surrendering gesture, not wanting to rattle her further.

“Alright, listen. I can understand how you feel. Just give me a few days to sort things out with them. They ended the affair years ago and nobody in the family knows anything about it. There is really no reason for them to commit murder. Besides, it cannot be a crime passion – it had to do something with the inheritance. It seems too coincidental for my father to be murdered right after the announcement of his heir.”

She seemed unconvinced. “Do you know what you’re asking of me? You want me to bury evidence? Do you know that I could be expelled if I hide things from the case?” she asked wearily.

“Two days,” Adonis bargained without missing a beat. “I only ask two days from you. Give me enough time to drill them and ensure that they’re innocent. Then, you can proceed with the information,” he said unwillingly, cringing at the scandal it would arise.

“I am not going to publish their affair,” Alaya seemed to read his affronted expression. “I will just call them at the precinct and interview them. I need to make sure that the investigation is going on as warranted. I am not here to darken your doorstep, Adonis. I am not your enemy here. So, will you stop treating me like your rival and cooperate with me?”

She was right! There was a bloody murderer roaming scot free, and all he cared about was keeping his sickening family away from scandal. But he knew that the vultures would pound as soon as the slightest form of weakness was displayed. With his father dead, the business sharks had already started circulating, finding ways to break the bureaucratic leadership they had in place.

“You’re not going to sell the story to the press?” he asked bewildered, somehow trusting that infuriating woman. That was not a question he would have asked to anyone simply because he would never give anyone else advantage over him.

She signed impatiently, like she was reacting to a child, and not a very bright one at that. “No. I have no interest in participating in gossiping about your family no matter how tempting that sounds.” The irony was not lost to him. “Like I already told you, I am here to do my job. If I have a suspicion over Elijah and Nora, I will have to summon them over to questioning.”

He opened his mouth to say something, but she cut him off rudely. “Two days,” she acquiesced curtly. “Only two days to do whatever the hell you think you can do to sort this out. Then, I’m coming after your mother and your uncle. But…,” she allowed the words to trail in mid-sentence and he waited for her to strike the iron.

For wasn’t that what other people did best? Wait until one was under duress to press for their advantage? Detective Petrov wouldn’t disappoint.

“But what?” he couldn’t help rising to the bait.

“But you hand me over Victor Alexander. He’s the only one refusing to corporate and I have a strong hunch that he might not be as innocent as his wife Helen painted him. You’re the only one who can convince him to give a statement. Do we have a deal?”

All things considered, it was a fair bargain. Had he been in her place, he would have probably asked for the same favor. That chick was too smart for her own good.

“Done,” he replied without hesitating, stretching out his hand for a formal agreement. She seemed unsettled, watching his outstretched hand like it was a weapon about to attack before finally placing her warmth in his.

All of a sudden, he knew why she’d been so reluctant to any physical contact. As soon as her flesh met his, electricity sparkled through the air making him want to instinctively remove his touch from hers. However, it took all his willpower to clench his jaw and not react to the sizzling chemistry between them.

The detective wasn’t so quick on the uptake though, her pupils dilated as she threw him a slumberous look. Her lips parted and involuntarily the memory of their steamy kiss came back to his mind. He could almost taste her again. His mouth salivated with anticipation, but he dropped his hand to his side to disconnect from her.

He wasn’t about to get involved with the detective working on his father’s case. It was such a bad idea.

“I’ll better get going,” she said in a discomfited manner, allowing her hand to fall by her side too. “Thank you for being honest with me. I just hope that we can collaborate in the future to resolve this murder as soon as possible.”

She seemed to have gotten over the shock quite efficiently, for the delivered barb annoyed the hell out of him. It seemed that she was eager to close the case and move on to another. Why that should bother him was a huge question mark. Normally, he was pretty unfazed with what was going on around him, especially when he had so many things to handle at the same time.

With his father gone, Adonis found that he’d inherited a huge responsibility. Although he’d been training for the Seattle CEO post for a while now, it was still very hard for him to smooth things out in the office. A reason why he preferred working from home these days – he felt less pressure within the confining walls of his home.

Headhunters was already circling around to poach some of his staffs, and he was currently busy working on a strategy to retain them along with his Human resource department.

In addition, his father’s been dead for almost two weeks, and his murderer was still roaming scot free.

Therefore, that should have left him little to no time to glare at the butt of the detective working on the case as she strolled down the alley. But nevertheless, he took his own time admiring the way the butt cheeks swished from side to side like a perfectly synchronized Antikythera mechanism.

It was only when she turned to return his stare that he straightened in a chastised way and offered her an unapologetic smile.

Murder investigation going on or not, he was still pure male, a bachelor one at that, and she was a very available female. There was nothing wrong if he was indeed attracted to her, although it might jeopardize both their careers.

He doubted that the shareholders of Fortune holdings would appreciate him having an affair with the detective of his father’s ongoing case. Not that he cared what they thought, but he really wanted to leave a good impression.

With that thought trotting at the back of his mind, he jerked his hardened groin punitively, and walked back inside the house without a backward glance. Even if the heavy feeling inside his chest told him that it was too late – way too late.